


Not Ready

by chronicAngel



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, POV Third Person, School Shootings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 02:42:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18730102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chronicAngel/pseuds/chronicAngel
Summary: Why did you have to take him? He was my cousin and I needed him!





	Not Ready

Hanabi rarely watches TV. Sometimes, she forgets they even  _have_ a TV in their house because she is so rarely interested in it (and, honestly, is so rarely allowed to watch it even when she is interested in it). But she is sick, and so she can't go to school and there isn't much she can do while being forced to stay on bed rest by her father as though it's something serious (as though the flu will kill you if you don't lay down all day). She doesn't even know what the cartoon she's been watching for the last two hours is called because she's such an unfortunate combination of out of it and uninterested.

Just barely, she can hear her father on the phone in the other room. She assumes that it's a client, and so doesn't listen in-- she's not about to get in trouble for nosing into his work for a second time this week. (It wasn't even her father that caught her. Neji had found her with her ear close up to the crack in his office door from where he'd absentmindedly forgotten to close it all the way and scolded her. He's always been such a goody two-shoes. Hinata's the same way. They're both so boring.)

But then, just a couple of minutes later, he walks into the living room with an air of urgency about him and grabs the remote from the end table, switching the channel without asking for her permission. She supposes he is the one who owns it. (Although she is startled because if she rarely watches TV, she doesn't think her father ever has. She thinks they only own one as a formality.)

He switches it over to the news, and she doesn't catch which channel it is but it hardly matters because she can't imagine there's a station that's not reporting on the same thing: "Konoha Academy Threatened By Armed Man".

She can only stare in wide-eyed horror at the screen as the reporter gives information on the situation. "...been able to identify the shooter. He was last reported to be in the East Wing of the school."  _The East Wing_ , she thinks, her stomach turning.  _That's where the high school classes are. Hinata and Neji are there right now_. She's torn between relief that her classmates are currently safe-- middle school classes are held in the West Wing-- and terror that her sister and cousin are in danger.

"Father," she croaks, and he grunts in acknowledgement, seemingly unable to peel his eyes away from the screen. "Who was that call from?" He does not answer her. He doesn't even seem to fully hear her, or at least doesn't absorb her words. "Father, who was it from?" She asks, almost wincing at the desperation leaking into her voice.

He hesitates a moment. "Your cousin called to let me know that he and Hinata are safe. They're in the auditorium right now for some assembly. He--" He's cut off as gunshots sound off from the TV. She looks over. While they were talking, it apparently switched over to a reporter who was live on the scene, and the shooter has just fired at someone.  _That could be onē-chan's classroom. She or Neji-oni-chan could be hurt._ "We have to go," he says. He picks her up before she can even open her mouth, still wrapped in a blanket.

He doesn't put his shoes on before they go outside. She has never seen her father leave the house barefoot before-- at least not to go beyond their porch-- but he carries her straight to the car and drops her in the passenger seat without even slipping on a pair of sandals. Her father has always been a very precise driver, following every traffic law (she's always suspected that might be a consequence of being a lawyer and knowing exactly how much trouble it can get you in), but now he is speeding at least fifteen miles per hour over the speed limit in the direction of Konoha Academy and she is left to hazily stare out the window.

It normally takes half an hour to get to their school, at least. Hanabi has always hated having to wake up at six in the morning to get properly ready and then get there on time (not to mention that she, Hinata, and Neji all have to share one shower). It only takes twenty minutes to get there now, and she can see that there are already other kids' parents and siblings waiting around outside, plus the reporters from different stations that have begun to swarm around the school.

Her father holds her like a particularly small child who is too stubborn to walk and she wonders if it's still easy for him even as she's almost thirteen and he's entering his late forties. He even has her practically swaddled in this blanket, though she knows it wouldn't actually take that much effort to squirm out of it (and squirm out of his hold, if she really wanted to). She stays put anyway because she takes some comfort in her father holding her, which makes her _feel_ like a particularly small child.

They stand near the Aburame family. She's grown up with them and the Akimichis and, when she was particularly little before they all died in some accident she's only heard the vaguest details about, the Uchihas because they're the particularly wealthy families of Konohagakure and live in the same general area. Aburame Torune is practically twitching where he stands, and Aburame Shibi has an arm around a crying woman with a ponytail she doesn't recognize. (She looks a lot like Hinata's friend Kiba, though, and if she had to guess she'd say the two are probably related in some way.)

"They're all going to be okay, right?" Hanabi asks softly to no one in particular. Aburame Torune is the one who looks at her, and she can picture his eyes wide behind his sunglasses before more gunshots sound off inside and she wants to scream and she squeezes her eyes shut and throws her hands over her ears and by the time that she has opened them again and uncovered her ears she can only see that he's gone and his adoptive father is yelling after him but police are already arriving to push them all back from chasing after him. She stares with wide eyes at the nearest officer, a kind-looking man with blond hair and blue eyes. "It's gonna be okay, right?" She asks, even softer this time. She thinks she must sound just like her sister with how soft-spoken she's growing. She wishes Hinata were with her to sound all soft and gooey for her.

"Everything's gonna be fine." It feels like a lie.

Most of the officers turn and go inside as a unit, including the blond man who was just standing by her, and then it's just her alone with a bunch of grown-ups wondering what's happening inside and the four police officers left behind to make sure nobody tries to surge inside. There's an unsettling silence for a few minutes before several gunshots fill the air and she squeezes her eyes tightly shut and tries to pretend that she's anywhere else in the world. She can't really ignore what's happening, though. The gunshots are too present, and the officers outside are being told over their walkie-talkies, "Officers down!"

"Officer Nara here. I'm going in for reinforcement."

"No, Shikaku, stay where you--" She recognizes the blond man from earlier's voice, and then there is only eerie silence from the walkie-talkie after a gunshot rings from inside the building again.

The man-- Officer Nara-- rushes inside, and Hanabi buries her face more thoroughly in her father's shoulder while he, in turn, squeezes her tighter. There has been too much fire for everyone inside of that building to be alive. She can only hope that Hinata and Neji are both okay.

When this round of gunshots stops, she can only hold her breath until the next one starts. She's sure it's only a matter of time at this point. She wonders if this is ever going to end. "They must be so scared..." She hears the young woman next to them sob, and her chest tightens painfully.

More people arrive at the school in the time it takes the officers to get the shooter. Another woman who looks like Kiba pulls up and slams the car door behind her, and the other girl next to her throws herself at her, and they just sob in each others' arms. The Akimichi couple arrive and ask Aburame Shibi and her father if they know anything about Chōji-- or about any of the children, for that matter. Several ambulances pull up, sirens wailing until they pull to a stop in the school's parking lot.

Finally, after it feels as though years have passed waiting outside of the school for some sort of update wrapped in this blanket and listening to gunshots ring, the officers' walkie-talkies echo, "The shooter has been subdued. We're sending the students outside. Send in medical personal to help carry out the injured and the dead. Over." She has goosebumps at  _the dead_.

She finally squirms out of her father's grip so she can carefully watch the doors as the students all pour outside. Several are shaking or crying, and there are several others whose faces are completely blank, as though they haven't quite processed what they've been through yet. Two that she recognizes-- Tenten and Rock Lee, Neji's friends-- are carrying out a teacher who's bleeding from a wound in his gut.

When Hinata steps out, she and a blond boy have their arms around each other (this is likely the Naruto she hears so much about) and they're both covered in blood. She feels her heart stutter for a second before she realizes that it doesn't belong to either of them. Naruto's face is blank like many of the other students, but Hanabi can see her sister shaking and her hand held over her mouth to contain her little sobs.

Naruto guides her to where they stand once he spots them and Hanabi throws her arms around her older sister. "You're okay," she breathes.

"N-N..." She shakes her head and sobs, and Hanabi thinks that she's trying to say  _No I'm not_.

Then officers and EMTs come out with dead bodies hastily packed onto gurneys and Hanabi can only scan them for faces she recognizes. She identifies the face of the blond-haired officer who talked to her earlier, and she didn't even know the man but she feels a heavy sorrow for his loss, especially when she sees a blonde girl who must be Hinata's age rushing to walk alongside it and crying. Chōji actually walks with her, his arm wrapped around her shoulders and holding her close. Aburame Torune is on one of them and she can't tell if he's breathing or not but she doesn't really want to think about it.

She thinks her heart drops to the pit of her stomach.  _No_. She rethinks Hinata's stuttering. She rethinks the fact that it was Naruto who walked her to Hanabi and their father, not Neji. She rethinks the fact that she'd seen two of his friends but he wasn't with them, either. She doesn't need to rethink any of these things, though. She sees him on one of those gurneys, sees that his chest isn't rising and falling with his breathing like some of the other people they're rolling out.  _No. Please. Not him. Anybody but Neji_ , she thinks. She looks at her sister for reassurance and only sees her clutching their father for dear life while she cries with her whole body.

Naruto crouches in front of her. "He..." He starts, and then seems to do some rethinking of his own. "He died protecting your sister," he eventually settles on, resting a hand on her shoulder as though this is supposed to be reassuring, and she shrugs him away and shakes her head, horrified. She can feel the sting of tears filling her eyes and turns to run away, though she doesn't know where she's going to run to. Evidently, it's their car. She climbs into the backseat and buries her face in her hands, letting herself sob now that she is away from prying eyes.

"Why?!" She screams at no one. She doesn't even peel her hands away from her face to say it. "Why did he have to die?! Why Neji?!"  _He was too young_ , she thinks when her voice begins to fail her and she can only choke on cries. _Why did you have to take him? He was my cousin and I needed him! I'm not ready! Give him back!_


End file.
